AVR 525 so far

[neznarf]

<font color='#000000'>Bought AVR 525 at Circuit City for $510, out-of-box, display model, discontinued, full 2 year warranty, less antennas and owners manual, which I downloaded from HK.
Was very strong on Onkyo TXSR601 after research and audition at HH Gregg, with tower speakers, demo cd, no soundroom.  Looking back, after visiting other soundrooms,
it seems to me that Soundrooms Offer No Benefit.
Onkyo very crisp, clear in stereo; stunning to my ears.
Some say it is bright, but I guess that is a matter of personal taste.
Nevertheless, after much tribulation, took the plunge, spent the extra bucks, got the HK.  
Took better part of a Saturday to hook up, rearrange speakers, etc.  Spent several hours the next day listening to music dvd's, like Diana Krall Live in Paris and Blue Man Group Complex Rock Tour Live; reprogramming dvd player for digital output (a must), and learning/programming the remote functions.  What the heck; I'm almost 49; why rush?
Thus far, no complaints about sound, except not quite as crisp as Onkyo TXSR601.
Replaced old Pioneer VSX 305 100w receiver, regular dolby surround (right, left, center, 2 same-channel surrounds)
with HK (right, left, center, sub, right surround, left surround, and the ability to add 2 same-channel back surrounds). Lo and behold, no matter where you go, 7.1 is really 6.1.; and
without back surround(s), 5.1.  
Kept old speakers, no-names, but good sound, very capable.
R-L 250w, 92 db, front-ported box 3-ways, yada yada.
Bought HK because of bass management (triple crossover)
and &quot;EZ-set&quot; speaker set-up, but lost out on Onkyo's &quot;intellivolume,&quot; whick lets you maintain volume levels when switching from dvd to TV or VCR.  
Almost wish I had gotten Onkyo because of this, and because so far I have found best lowpass crossover on sub at its max, 120Hz, and prefer to use sub's volume control over its crossover control.
Also, gotta push all the buttons in sequence when switching sources, and gotta push input selector on TV remote; PITB!
No advantage here over Onkyo.
But then you get to that awesome EZ-set.  Well maybe not awesome, but very nice to have.  Read recently that Pioneer (*) 912 does it better for less; probably worth a look.  Yamaha also better at EZ-set, but not less.
Also cannot see on-screen display when TV is set to component video-in, so whenever you want to reprogram your set-ups, make sure you have your TV remote handy.  Suspect this is a result of no &quot;video up-conversion.&quot;
In the last two days have seen &quot;Windtalkters,&quot; a big blood-n-guts shoot-em-up (not so much about Navaho code talkers); and &quot;Seabiscuit,&quot; both on dvd.
Thunderous.  (Fronts set to Large, Center to small.)  Keep your thumb on the volume control.
All-in-all, very satisfied with automatic digital detection, sound quality, EZ-set and other features, but glad I did not spend more than I did.  Truly, now that I have this humongous (beautiful)  44-lb piece of equipment, I think most of my satisfaction is derived merely from having 5-channel (discrete) sound and a subwoofer.</font>

 

[neznarf]

<font color='#000000'>I know, most of you who read this previous post are still looking, but:
For those of you with past experience/knowledge, how about
a simple comment whether you agree/disagree? &nbsp;I am curious!</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>I've had the AVR525 for seven months and am very happy with it.  I will admit that some of the setup facilities are not always implemented in the most convenient way, but I find the performance is just superb.  I have all seven speakers hooked up so I can take advantage of DTS ES 6.1 and Dolby Digital EX.  The DTS 6.1 LOTR sound tracks just blow me away. I get very big sound in a moderately large living room with relatively low efficiency NHT SuperAudio speakers.  

A big reason for selecting Harman Kardon is Logic 7. I love listening to 2 channel sources (mostly classical music) in surround mode and Logic 7 does it very well indeed. It has the ability to give you the feeling the performance is coming from the stage in front while the surrounds are effectively simulating reverb in the concert hall. The back surrounds just make it that much more enveloping.  I origianally had the AVR520 but the implementation of Logic 7 on that model was flawed.  After much back and forth with Harman Kardon, they were kind enough to do an even trade up to the 525.  I'm sure other brands like Onkyo, Denon &amp; Yamaha perform just as well, but they don't have Logic 7.</font>

 

[neznarf]

<font color='#000000'>As it turns out, you don't have to &quot;push all the buttons.&quot;
You can easily reprogram remote to change volume, channel, &quot;transport control&quot; (fast-forward et al), so that you just push the button without switching first.
I have begun to realize how happy I am with AVR525,
and wish I had a bigger room so I could push it more.
Ready to replace speakers.
Thinking about buying a new house or knocking down a wall.  

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